Is the UK referred to as the Islands in Polish media back home?

Australasia is the continent. Brits refer to mainland Europe as the continent, yes. Nothing wrong with calling it 'island' as The British Isles enjoyed splendid isolation up to 1902 and, well, we are still an island despite ditching the policy ;)

A very good point.

Worth mentioning that the phrase is 'The Islands'. The British Isles are made up of more than a thousand.

No doubt you will call me "common" for saying kartofle instead of ziemniaki as well.

I bet you think you're royalty because your surname ends in "wicz" or something. lol

tbh it's more of a media thing, really. I've never heard anyone actually say it. Just like no-one ever says "sex romp" except the papers. haha :)

Wrong, Britain was engaged in imperialist enterprizes around the globe both before and after 1902. That is not "isolation" nor was it "splendid" especially for all the innocent non-British people brutalized by the greedy rulers of those islands and their craven British minions.

What, exactly, does this have to do with the topic?

What's your theory on why Polish people call it "The Islands"?

You beat me to in. He's just trolling again. Better to keep a British stiff upper lip and that callous sang froid that has long helped the inhabitants of our foggy islands to rise above such behaviour..

Anyway, the relationship between Poland and Britain has lasted for centuries - it isn't surprising there's a colloquial name for the British Isles in the Polish language.

I say kartofle as well ziemniaki.

I think I don't understand what you meant here.


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I don't see anything weird in an expression na wyspach. Some might say it, some might not. Certainly it doesn't sound unnatural.

I know the links between Scotland and Poland were very strong at one point - there's a thread somewhere on here about it. Really, 2004 was just the latest wave in a long line of cooperation between the two places -

I wonder - has Poland and England/Scotland ever fought each other? I'm thinking about WW1, maybe...?

There were a lot of mercenaries from the borders who fought in the Swedish Deluge. More recently there were Polish soldiers (on both sides) during the Crimean War.

Are any British (or Scottish, English, Welsh, Northern Irish) people offended by the use of "The Islands" by Poles?

Nothing offensive as far as I'm concerned - we call Europe "the continent", after all.

(interesting side note - napoleonistyka.atspace.com/Fuengirola.htm - a castle taken from the British by Polish soliders)

During Napoleonic wars !
mercenary doesn't count1

DE, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was seen as an admission in the history books of Britain's need for allies after struggling through the Boer War of 1899.

The UK would be referred to as islands as NI is not part of GB, simple!

In the Polish media I have seen 'na wyspach' on more than one occasion.

DE, please don't embarrass yourself anymore than you really need to. You're close to your quota ;)

As for continental, think continental breakfast. The full English is sth very different and more substantial.

it's just another (lame) attempt to...


;)


It's like someone mentioned elsewhere, about someone they met who claimed that England isn't in Europe. Just because the "British Isles" aren't on the mainland, it doesn't mean we're not in Europe. If that argument was applied elsewhere, then neither is Malta or Crete - utterly ridiculous of course :)

Yeah, it can descend into the ridiculous. No need for such deep analysis, of course. An island is a piece of land completely surrounded by water and both GB and the island of the Irish fit that description. End of story!

Some sources says that a large part of Canute's the Great army invading England were Poles sent by his uncle Bolesław Chrobry.

You know what some might say, Greg...... ;)

Canute was half-Polish, so It's not some mumbo-jumbo...

Exactly, the Isles isn't a term I've used much or heard people using here. But I don't see why on Earth it would be offensive or strange. If I heard someone refer to the UK as The Isles I may think them a bit outdated but I would understand what they meant and wouldn't be offended.

A bit of evidence about how what 'some sources' say happened a millennium ago affect the current long-standing relationship wouldn't go amiss. After all, 'some sources' say King Arthur's knights of Camelot may have been sarmation. Of passing interest only.

More pertinently there has been a Poland Street in London's Soho since the early Eighteenth Century and I know of a grave in a village churchyard far from London with a rather interesting Polish name from around that period.

Well,Id say he was spot on, not only Cnut,but Wiliam of Normandy also had Polish soldiers of fortune with him.
Oh,and, the '45, the jacobite scoundral Charles Stuart was half Polish....and of course,as Ironsides mentioned, during the Napoleonic wars, specifically during the Penninsular wars in Iberia. Sad end for the Poles in that one though,old Boney sent them to Haiti where most died of disease while surpressing a slave revolt.

Lots of Islands then...

i am english and not offended in the slightest, however none of my polish friends have heard the uk being referred to as the islands

NI is not part of GB, delph. It's part of the UK, though.

It isn't unusual (in fact it used to be extremely common in my experience until I learnt to speak the language well) for Poles to feign ignorance of or even flatly deny a particular phrase that other Poles say.

Anyway - The British Isles are islands. It isn't as if they're going to call them 'The Mainland'.

Seanus you with your 30,000 posts, that include idiotic claims such as the one above about imperial Britain being "isolated," apparently have no quota.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splendid_isolation

read and learn. I don't think you have quite grasped the essence of the concept.

Correct, the phrase is used in British schools for 15 year olds describing a policy that didnt exist in practice or on paper.
It illustrates the strange relationship between Britain and the rest of Europe.

The reluctance to enter into binding agreements such as the EU. In relative terms, there was a fair degree of isolation.

Not really, the Duke of Wellington, corn laws, Crimea....that takes us to 1880 or there abouts....the Entente cordiale and so on. So that leaves a 25 years gap where the focus was on Empire building outside Europe ie screwing the French.

it's a relative concept to Brits. Britain has been deeply locked into Europe since 1973 especially but some have been talking of splendid isolation again. In relative terms, Britain was disengaged before 1902. A lot of observing of world affairs and far fewer pacts/ententes.

That's funny.